On AD 2007 December 15 Saturday 03:40:23 PM -0700, Charles Curley wrote:
> Indeed it is! The Voyager spacecraft were designed for a fifteen year
> lifetime. And we're still getting useful science from them. The
> radiothermal generator provided, if I recall correctly, 120 watts of
> power at launch. Think about the implications for communications!
Because there's not enough solar EM flux density to power them with
solar energy, probably not even with 0.99 efficiency panels (assuming
that's possible). Now if only we could get those solar panels the
empire uses on its TIE craft ... then ... who cares about sending out
probes anymore? Where's my TIE interceptor?! :-)
Justin